SG1:5 Presume Nothing
by A Rhea King
Summary: Is Frank dreaming, or is Daniel remember his past life? Can this explain why symbiont and host are talking at the same time?
1. Chapter 1

**Presume Nothing**

A. Rhea King

**Chapter 1**

He was surrounded by total chaos and life seemed to have become meaningless to all the humans around him. A mortar exploded to his left and he ducked, but couldn't escape the shower of soil, body parts, and blood. Still he charged on with his rifle hoisted at hip level, the bayonet ready to spear into him. A soldier came around a burning tank. The uniform was familiar – brown colored with ornate buttons and a black rounded helmet that shined. He was German, and by the look in his eyes, the soldier was prepared to kill him. But he moved faster and ran the German through with his bayonet before squeezing off a round.

'_Behind you_!' a voice screamed in his head.

He turned and without looking fired on another German charging him. He looked to his left and then right; Germans were running toward him from all directions. The Allied trench was overtaken; they had lost this battle. Around him fellow soldiers that didn't immediately drop their weapons were shot on sight. He dropped his rifle as the butt of a rifle was slammed against his temple He fell into the mud as German's surrounded him and roughly drug him back to his feet. They grabbed his rank badge and he knew right then he was in trouble. They would take him alive, and rumors had it that being taken alive was close to hell. He tried to fight and something struck him over the head. The fighting and the war blurred as he fell into the mud of Poland.

* * *

It was cold that brought them to their senses. No. No that wasn't it. It was... Pain. It was sharpest in their left thigh, and dull down his leg and across their lower left ribs. It didn't bring him sharply back to consciousness; that was a slow process like waking from a Sunday afternoon nap. 

'_What happened?_' a voice asked in his head. No. Their head.

Daniel opened his eyes. Very dim light shone from somewhere above, filtering through the still settling dust. He started to move and that made the pain worse.

'_Ah fuck! Hold still! Do not move, Danny,'_ the voice in his head told him. It was the same voice that had been with Carson in the dream he had been having.

Daniel blinked. He remembered the voice now. Frank. A goa'uld that saved his life. How? He had a virus. No. Daniel had the virus and it was contagious only if he died, and Frank was keeping him alive, a dam that held back the changes the virus would have otherwise made in his brain, eventually killing him. But where was he right now?

"Jackson, Frank, are you two dead?" a voice asked.

'_No. I'm dead_,' Frank told him.

Without realizing, Daniel answered at the same time, with the same words.

Silence followed. Mitchell stepped over Daniel and knelt in soft dirt in front of Daniel. Blood that had freely ran down his face, jaw, and neck was no congealing and drying. A cut ran down his arm; it had sliced right through his jacket and over shirt, tearing through a pocket.

"What happened?" Daniel and Frank asked.

"What is wrong with you two?" Mitchell demanded.

"What?" Daniel asked.

"It sounds like you're talking at the same time."

Daniel felt woozy suddenly. He closed his eyes, hoping it would settle the nausea settling in his stomach.

"Daniel?" Mitchell said.

'_Danny?_' Frank said.

Daniel slipped back into unconsciousness. Frank tried to take over the body. He opened his eyes, golden light flashing in them. He saw Mitchell lean closer, saw his mouth moving, but he couldn't hear him.

"Cameron..." Frank said, trying to stay consciousness.

Mitchell grabbed his shoulder, but Frank didn't feel the pressure. He felt panic rise. He couldn't sense anything.

"Frank, give Daniel control," he heard Doctor Lam order.

Frank closed his eyes.

* * *

He was inside a dark tube. There was a little light coming in from the end. He heard a quiet hum and even though he knew he was in the CAT scan and safe, his heart was still beating in his throat. 

"Can't we just skip this part?" Frank asked.

"Frank, just give Daniel control," Lam gently pushed.

Frank didn't want to. While he was in control he knew he could get out of this.

'_Frank, why do we have to go through this every week?_' Daniel asked him. '_I'm getting really tired of it_.'

Frank closed his eyes. He was afraid.

He heard a distant voice scream, "CAMERON!"

He opened his eyes, staring at the small patch of sunlight on the floor. He heard a clank-clank and felt himself swaying back and forth. The light moved to the swaying motion. He closed his eyes. He heard someone whispering, and someone else crying softly. He was aware of people around him but he faded back into unconsciousness before he could determine who they were.

* * *

"CAMERON!" Carter yelled. 

Mitchell scrambled to his feet, turning and craning his neck to try and see over the ledge twenty feet overhead. Carter suddenly appeared, panting and out of breath.

"Teal'c went to grab a rope from the M.A.L.P. Are you two okay?"

"I am. Daniel has a reed through his leg. He and Frank were awake for a couple of minutes, but they're out again."

Carter keyed the mic on her shoulder. "Teal'c."

"_Go ahead._" Teal'c replied.

"Daniel can't climb out. See if you can find something we can use to get him out of here."

"_I will see what I can find. Perhaps I should request backup as well?"_

"Go ahead. We're going to need help lifting him out."

"_I am almost to the gate. I will do so as well_."

"Sit tight, Cameron. We'll figure something out."

"Not like we're going any where," he retorted sarcastically.

Carter vanished for a second and then reappeared. "By the way, if Daniel doesn't say it, 'I told you so' is really in order."

Mitchell smirked at her. "It didn't look like a trap!"

"Did you really think some race was going to just leave a pile of gold laying around for anyone to take, Cameron?"

Mitchell hesitated and the forcefully answered, "YES!"

She smirked. "I guess they make booty traps for persons such as yourself."

"What does that mean?"

Carter vanished, but he could hear her laughing at him. He shook his head, looking back down at Daniel.

"You could have warned me there might be traps," Mitchell told him.

He looked down at Daniel's thigh. The bottom of the pit had small, sharp-ended reeds lining it. At one time the bottom of the pit was lined with these reeds that had been cut off to a sharp edge and pointed toward the top. They were meant to impale anything that landed on them, but luckily for both men, the hardened mud foundations that held them up had cracked and they'd fallen; except a few like the one that had impaled Daniel's thigh.

The reeds were small, not even as big as his small finger, but they surprisingly strong. SG-1 had encountered them in the marsh outside this temple and Mitchell had been smacked in the face by enough of them to know just how strong they were. It annoyed him that the team found such great amusement in letting them flip back into his face after they passed but he guessed he deserved it. Maybe. Perhaps a little bit. He had replaced the sugar with salt before they'd woken up and laughed hard when, at the same time, they'd realized what he'd done. Threats had been made that they'd get back but he was pretty sure letting him trip a booty trap wasn't what they meant. Otherwise Daniel wouldn't have tried to stop him from taking that last, fateful, step. Which suddenly struck Mitchell as odd in itself.

Just as he stepped onto a trigger stone, Daniel had screamed, "STOP, CAMERON!"

Under Daniel's voice he had heard Frank's resonating voice. It was like two radio stations playing the same song but on frequencies off just enough that you could tell the difference. It also wasn't the first time he'd heard it on this mission or back home. But Daniel kept brushing it off, telling everyone they were hearing things. Did he really think that the entire base was buying that they were hearing things? Because most of the personnel had brought it to Landry's attention – who in turn hat told hem it was being dealt with or not to worry about it.

It had happened again the night before, right after they arrived on the planet. Carter pressed him about it and demanded he tell Doctor Lam about it.

Daniel finally muttered, "Carolyn is researching it. It's under control."

The three of them didn't like that answer. Teal'c was the first to tell Daniel he wasn't comfortable knowing there was even something wrong with him – not him personally, but that they didn't know if he needed to be protected or not.

That apparently was enough to piss Frank off, because he suddenly took control, ordered all of them to mind their own business, pointed out the numerous times Daniel had saved their asses when they weren't themselves, that they were to leave the two of them alone, that the problem was under control, and that they four of them had been sent here on a mission that they were expected to complete – not interrogate a member of their team.

The three were all stunned by the outburst. It wasn't like Frank to blow up like that and Daniel's voice had been under Frank's through the entire outburst – a clear indication that host and goa'uld felt the same way about the situation. So the three dropped the issue and the next morning, Daniel and Frank were back to their happy and geeky selves.

Mitchell sat down next to Daniel, staring at the top of the pit. He'd stopped missing the old Daniel a long time ago, but this new version of him was a little more than he could take some days. So much so that he had been considering asking Landry to transfer him to another team... But he always found himself looking at the pros and cons of loosing the best two archeologist, linguists, and cultural anthropologists on the base. Combined they hadn't come up against anything they couldn't figure out in half the time it would have taken Daniel alone to figure out _with_ a whole team of computers and assistants. Every time he came around to those thoughts, he'd tear up the request he'd written and throw it away. Besides, it had only been a few months and they were still adjusting to one other, weren't they?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The arid planet was mostly sand. It was dying and in a few centuries it would be all sand and no atmosphere. A few centuries later the atmosphere would thin and the sand would blow into the sky, off the planet and into space. In a passage of time no life form would ever see, the planet would become a cold, barren rock that had washed out memories of a time it had teemed with life.

But for now, this remote planet was the perfect hiding place for a group of Tok'ra. It had never been a part of any system lord's empire and with the fighting going on among them now, chances were it never would be. But still they hid under the sand, keeping a watchful eye on the Stargate and skies.

The gate burst open and through it came Doctor Carolyn Lam, Stargate Command's leading physician. She was dressed in fatigues and armed with only a pistol. She was alone, a request her father, General Landry, had fought her on. But knowing how to fight back like her mother, she'd finally won. She couldn't tell him why she needed to see the Tok'ra, she'd promised Daniel she wouldn't tell anyone until she knew what was happening to him.

Lam walked down the steps, knowing the Tok'ra would eventually make themselves known. When they did, it was as if they appeared out of the air, each of the six holding staff weapons on her.

"I was told I could see Doctor Wyr'tung," Lam told them.

"Doctor Lam of the tau'ri?" one asked.

She nodded.

"He's expecting you. Follow me."

Lam fell in behind him. He glanced back at her.

"We hear that the tau'ri have made an alliance with the Thu'lo."

"We have."

He looked away with a strange expression.

"Is that a problem?" she asked.

He thought about it, then his eyes flashed with golden light and the symbiont shook his head.

"It is good that the tau'ri have met more of us that are willing to make peace," the symbiont answered. "They simply have different morals than us and this disturbs us."

They stopped and he turned to her. Transport rings appeared around them.

"Different morals?" Lam asked.

They were teleported into the base. The symbiont nodded, leading her down halls.

"We find it repulsive that they use dead hosts."

"They aren't dead."

Her guide stopped, turning to her. "They do not use corpses?"

"No. They use brain dead hosts, but the body is very much alive."

"How is that different?"

Lam started to answer. "If I were speaking with Doctor Wyr'tung, I wouldn't have to explain that."

He smiled. "You like the Thu'lo."

Lam blushed, looking away. The Tok'ra leaned in.

"Or is there more to your defensive reaction?"

She looked up at him. "You are Doctor Wyr'tung, aren't you?"

He smiled. "Yes, my host is who you were sent to speak with."

"May I?"

The light faded and she lifted her chin. "Am I to understand, Doctor Wyr'tung, that you are going to help me only if I give you information about the thu'lo?"

"That wasn't the arrangement, but--"

"So far that seems to be the arrangement. If it is, then perhaps I should leave and--"

"You have to understand that everything we know about the Thu'lo are myths or hearsay. We really don't know anything about them, Doctor Lam. You are the first I've ever met that even knows one."

Lam felt something was off about the comment. He was fishing for something, or waiting for her to tell him something. She stepped closer to him, holding his eyes with a dark look of distrust.

"The Thu'lo don't know everything. They can't explain what would make a symbiont and host talk at the same time."

She read his surprised expression. He knew what she was talking about. Something that not one of the thu'lo doctors she'd spoken with had. Perhaps now she would start finding a way to help Daniel.

"You mean it sounds as if they're talking together?" Doctor Wyr'tung asked.

Lam nodded.

He looked past her. She glanced back, expecting to see someone, but there was no one in the hall. He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her back into a talk. He lowered his voice, as if the walls were listening.

"We don't talk about these things around other Tok'ra. It is an anomaly that we really have no control over."

"Who does?" Lam looked up into his eyes.

He held her gaze, guiding her along the halls by memory. Whispering he told her, "The Ancients."

Lam wasn't sure if she was relieved or not to hear that. Further, she had no idea what it meant for Daniel's condition.

* * *

Daniel woke to the sound of Mitchell muttering curses. He looked up. Mitchell was sitting by him, grimacing and cursing as he swabbed the wound on his arm with an iodine pad

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment. He felt strange. No. Not strange. Normal. He felt normal. It was normal in a way he hadn't felt in a long time – although he couldn't put a finger on when he'd last felt like this.

"Son of a--"

"Just wrap it, Cameron. Geeze!" Daniel said, looking up at him.

A lazy smile settled on Mitchell's lips. "Nice to have you back, Jackson."

Daniel addressed the welcome with a slight lift of his eyebrows. He moved his leg to get up and cried out when pain stabbed from his thigh down his leg and into his hip.

"You might want to hold still."

Daniel shot him a glare. "You could have warned me."

"You have a reed sticking out of your leg, Jackson. Lay still."

Daniel made a face at him. Mitchell smiled.

Daniel moved his head to look down and let out a scream. No. He didn't scream. Something else screamed in his head. It was faint, but the pain it felt may as well have been his. Daniel froze. He felt normal. He felt alone. Like there was no one else in his head or thoughts. He couldn't feel...

"Frank," Daniel said.

"What about him?"

"I can't feel him."

Mitchell looked at him. "What?"

"I can't feel Frank." Daniel reached over his shoulder, trying to feel the place Frank lived in his body.

He reached back to where Frank was in his neck and his fingers brushed through something moist. He pulled his hand back, staring at the blood on them. Well, almost blood. This was much darker than his, almost black, and a little oily.

"What's that?" Mitchell asked.

"Frank's blood."

Mitchell scrambled to his feet and stepped behind Daniel. Daniel let him push his shoulder up so he could see the back of Daniel's neck.

"Oh... Daniel..." Mitchell begun.

His voice told Daniel it was bad, whatever he was seeing.

"What?" Daniel asked.

Mitchell gently lowered him back.

"One of the reeds went into the back of your neck, into Frank. He's bleeding pretty good."

Daniel felt cold, numbed.

"Frank's bleeding? He's..."

Mitchell stood, keying his mic. "Carter."

"If I can't feel him, Cameron. That has to mean he's not doing very well."

"Carter!" Mitchell barked at his mic.

"No. You don't understand, Cameron. I still have the virus. If he dies..."

Mitchell stepped over Daniel, grabbing his shoulder, looking him in the eyes. "We aren't going there, Daniel. Understand? Just because you can't feel him doesn't mean he's doing badly. Maybe this is how they deal with pain when they don't want the host to feel it."

"No. I--"

"How much do we really know about goa'uld? I mean really?"

"No. This is different. I--"

"Jackson!"

Daniel looked at him.

"We don't know that much, do we? Really?"

Daniel frowned. "No."

"So then how do you know Frank isn't keeping you from feeling his pain?"

"Why are you defending him?"

Mitchell shrugged a little. "I like the guy. He may be a bit of a coward, but the two of you combined make a hell of a team member. It's like having two Jackson's on one team." Mitchell scowled a little. "Which is actually really annoying some days, but I choose to ignore that and focus on the fact the two of you can learn new languages faster than you alone ever did."

Daniel stared at him. Mitchell was complimenting him? That was highly unusual. Mitchell stood, keying the mic again.

"CARTER!" he yelled.

She appeared at the edge of the pit carrying a ladder. Calmly she asked, "What?"

"You could have just answered me."

"I was bringing a ladder. I couldn't get to my mic."

"Put some speed on getting us out of here. Daniel, Frank, I mean, has a reed in him. He's bleeding and Daniel says he can't feel him."

"What do you mean you can't feel him?" Carter asked Daniel.

"I mean I can't feel him," Daniel answered. "All the emotions and conversation are gone. It's how I felt before he was a part of me."

"Can you get him to respond at all?"

"No."

"Let me go tell Teal'c to ask for Carolyn to come. I'll put the ladder here at the end, Cameron, and--"

"I'm staying with Daniel."

"Guys." Daniel interrupted. "I still have the virus. I don't think bringing more people here is a good idea. If he dies--"

"Jackson, put a sock in it."

Daniel stopped talking.

"I'll be back." Carter said.

"Stay close, Carter. I can't raise Teal'c down here so I need you up there to relay messages."

"Okay. I'll get some water and come right back."

Mitchell nodded. Carter disappeared. He sat down next to Daniel, hugging his knees.

"Worried?" Daniel asked.

"Be a damned fool not to be, don't you think?"

"Yes." Daniel closed his eyes.

Mitchell sat down. "Leg hurt?"

Daniel started to nod but stopped. "Yes."

Mitchell grabbed his pack and dug through it. He pulled out a field hypodermic, looking at it for a second.

"If I give you this morphine, you won't feel much of anything."

Daniel looked at it. "I'll be fine."

"What about Frank? I bet he'd like to stop feeling some pain."

Daniel hesitated. He didn't want Frank to hurt but he wasn't sure if the morphine would even get to him.

"Give it in my neck. Try to hit him with it."

Mitchell started to argue.

"He may not get it from me if you give anywhere else, Mitchell. My leg hurts but it's not that bad. Give it to him."

Mitchell hesitated. Finally he stood and stepped over Daniel. He felt Daniel's neck, trying to find the largest part of Frank. Deciding he'd found it he pulled the cap off and pulled his arm back some.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

Mitchell jammed the needle into Daniel's neck. Daniel grunted, clenching his teeth. Suddenly he felt Frank's pain and it made his head swim.

'_Danny_?' Frank whispered. '_What's happening_?'

"Just a shot. It'll make us feel better, Frank."

'_A shot... Of..._' Frank stopped talking and the pain quickly eased away.

Daniel closed his eyes, feeling his own pain fading as the morphine dulled his senses. Mitchell stepped back over and sat down.

"Daniel?" he asked. His voice sounded strange as it echoed in Daniel's ears.

Daniel faded into sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Daniel," Lam said. But her voice was so different. It was relaxed in a way he had never heard. "Wake up."

Daniel opened his eyes, staring into her shining black eyes. They lay face to face in his bed with morning sunlight filling the room. She smiled, running her hand down his face.

"Was it a good evening?"

"Y-Yes." He smiled. "The play wasn't bad."

She laughed softly. The play hadn't been that good. At supper he'd managed to knock a tray out of a waiter's hand in his nervousness. Frank had tried once to take over because Daniel was making a complete fool of himself in front of Lam. They both thought the night was going to end with him taking her home and any prospects of a relationship would be over in two dates.

But she surprised them both on the ride home. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, and asked to see his place. He took her to his house and he began talking about research projects he was doing, things Frank were interested in, languages the two of them had decoded.

Without warning or forewarning she walked up to Daniel, grabbed his face and kissed him, and silencing both him and Frank.

She looked into his eyes, their eyes, and softly told him, "I didn't want to see your house to talk, guys."

For once Frank didn't have a snide or sarcastic comeback. Daniel could only stare at her. They both stared in shock as she walked away slipping out of her dress, and muttering over her shoulder something about finding out what it was like to have two men in bed with her and laughed softly. Daniel didn't need Frank to prompt him to follow her to their bed.

"I enjoyed you showing me your house, myself," she admitted.

She slid a little closer to him, kissing him. Daniel pulled her to him, enjoying the feeling of her silky skin pressed against his.

'_I love women_,' Frank sighed.

Daniel chuckled.

"What?" she asked.

"Frank loves women."

She kissed him harder, slipping her tongue around his. Daniel rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. She leaned on his chest, looking into his eyes.

"I thought this was going to very weird. That I wouldn't be able to sleep with you... You two, rather. But... It's not that hard. I was surprised how much you two like the same things."

Daniel forced a smile. He didn't remember Frank being in control last night.

"We do?"

"Yes."

Daniel shrugged it off. He didn't care if Frank had enjoyed the night too. He had been fully aware that this relationship meant he'd be sharing her with Frank and he'd come to terms with that after Frank, not he, had asked her out.

"Although, the two of you talking at the same time is a little... Freaky."

Daniel went cold.

'_We didn't! Ah shit, we did, didn't we, Danny_?'

"What are you talking about?" Daniel asked.

"There were a few times you two said the same thing at the same time. It was strange, but I got over it after..." She blushed, nervously laughing her comment off. "Anyway."

Daniel didn't comment. Her smile slipped away.

"You do know that happened, don't you two?"

Daniel smiled and nodded. She didn't look convinced.

"Did both of you not know that happened?"

Daniel didn't answer.

"Which of you didn't?"

Daniel looked away. "It's... More complicated than that, Carolyn."

"Complicated how?"

At the same time Frank and Daniel told her, "Because this has been happening for about a month," Daniel looked back at her, the two continuing, "And we don't know why it's happening."

She sat up next to him, staring at him. "Why haven't you told me about this?"

"At first we thought it was just something that happened between a symbiont and a host. Frank told me it had never happened to him with any other host before, but I just figured..."

'_Maybe shutting up would be a good idea right now, Danny_,' Frank suggested.

"When did you realize it wasn't happening every so often?" Lam demanded/

Daniel looked at her. "After we went to the Jakisau planet." Daniel added. "We thought we could figure this out on our own."

'_And have failed miserably_.'

"_I'm_ the doctor, Daniel Jackson. You're supposed to come to me with these things. For all we know this could be the virus causing it."

Together they told her, "It's not the virus, Carolyn."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"I'd have been dead weeks ago if were the virus?"

She sighed, looking out the window. "Okay. Okay. But this great plan the two of you have isn't working so well, is it, men?"

Together they answered, "No."

"So now you're going to let the doctor in on the big secret and start running tests and try to figure out what's going on. Aren't you?"

'_God, she's gorgeous when she gets serious like that, isn't she_?'

Daniel smiled at the comment. "Yes."

"Do both of you agree?"

"Yes," they answered together.

She laid back down on top of him and held her lips above his, taunting him with the promise of a kiss.

"And if you two don't keep your word, it's back to cold, lonely nights in this bed."

'_Oh! That's so cruel! We promise. We promise_!'

Daniel laughed at Frank. "We promise. Both of us."

She brushed her lips against his, asking, "Both of you?"

Together they answered, "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes," they answered.

She kissed him. "Now, what else do you two want to promise me?"

Daniel wrapped his arms around her, kissing her. He wasn't about to ignore Frank's lust for her, not when he felt the same way.

* * *

Lam stared at the information on the screen. She slowly looked at Doctor Wyr'tung. 

"We were stunned by the discovery too," he told her.

"How many?"

"Six that have come forward."

Lam stood up, taking two steps away from the table. She noticed a tray of food and drink was sitting on a table and didn't remember anyone bringing it in, but then, she'd been engrossed for hours in the information he was giving her and hadn't noticed much. She turned back to him.

"Does this happen to every one of them?" she asked.

"It appears to. Like I said, only six have come to me about this. Remember, Doctor Lam, Tok'ra are hidden in all corners of the galaxy. This could be happening to others and we don't know about it because, as you've seen with Daniel and the Thu'lo, they aren't very comfortable telling anyone about it."

She sat down on the stool, looking at the floor. "Have you found any way to stop it?"

"No. As I told you before, the only way we've prevented the host and symbiont from becoming fully integrated, was to have the symbiont--"

"Excuse me," a Tok'ra said as he ran into the area. "Doctor Lam?"

"Yes?"

"There's been an accident. General Landry is asking you to return to base immediately."

She stood, looking at Doctor Wyr'tung. "May I have copies of the data?"

He nodded. "Maybe the Th..." He glanced at the Tok'ra, and then finished saying, "Maybe there will be others that could benefit from it, and perhaps help all of us come up with a way to prevent it."

She smiled. "Thank you. I'll keep you informed."

He stood, staring into her eyes. His eyes flashed with light and he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"And you, Doctor Lam, I believe would. Take care of Daniel Jackson and his friend."

She smiled, grateful that the two were so willing to help. She followed the Tok'ra out.

* * *

The voice in him asked. "_Where are we, Carson_?'

He opened his eyes, focusing on his surroundings. He heard a steady clank-clank and felt himself swaying in the same rhythm of the noise. It was familiar but he was having a hard time identifying with his foggy head. He could barely make out the faces around him. Now that he was awake, he felt the sweltering heat. He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, looking at the faces again. They were men, women and children, and those who weren't staring at him, were staring blankly at nothing with terrified expressions.

Carson turned, looking at the wall behind him. He slowly climbed to his feet and stumbled over legs and around people to it. He leaned on the wall, looking through the small crack in the boards. Outside the land was speeding past – he realized he was on a train. A train... Carson's stomach turned. He looked back at the people and now he saw something that terrified him.

The Star of David was pinned to their clothes. He put his hand over his shoulder, as if he could hide the pin on his shoulder and realized that the Germans hadn't been interested in his rank when they captured him. He looked down, dropping his hand away from the Star of David. It was a gift his mother had given him before he'd left for the war. She had pinned it on his uniform and cried on his other shoulder. She begged him to come home. It was a pin that had sentenced him to... Carson turned back to the crack. It was his faith that sentenced him to death.

'_No. No, Carson. It isn't your faith. It isn't the pin. It's the man that told those soldiers your faith and that pin is wrong. A wicked, evil man. Not your faith. Never that, Carson._'

Carson closed his eyes to the voice in his head. He had lived with Frank for six month. The two had fought battle after battle together, keeping each other alive to fight another day. Now they'd have to keep each other alive for a different reason. This time they'd have to survive one of the prison camps he'd heard rumors about. Carson looked out at the land.

'_We'll survive this too, Carson,_' Frank agreed with the thought that hadn't formed fully.

Carson turned and sat down, taking solace in the entity inside him that was stronger than he was. Its wisdom was all that he had to keep him alive right now.

The train began slowing down. He lifted his head, his stomach tensed. This was it. This was where he'd meet death, wasn't it?

'_No. Not like that, Carson. We'll pull through. I make you stronger than everyone else, remember? We'll make it through this_,' Frank assured him.

But Carson wasn't feeling his confidence.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Daniel opened his eyes. He was confused by the dream. It didn't feel like a dream. It felt more like a memory.

"Daniel?" Carter said, sitting down next to him.

He smiled at her. "Hi."

"Hey. How are you two feeling?"

"I'm fine. I don't know how Frank is. I still can't feel anything."

"I got his bleeding to slow but he really needs a doctor. I think Cameron said that Carolyn's coming here."

Daniel smiled. He wanted to see her right now.

"How's your leg feel?" Carter asked.

"It hurts, but it's not that bad."

"Do you want any more morphine?"

Daniel looked into her eyes. "No. No more morphine."

"For Fra--"

"He's remembering something when I'm out and I... No."

"Remembering what?"

"I think... I think he shared a body with a soldier in World War II."

Carter leaned forward on his legs. "How could you not know that until now?"

"I don't know. I told you there are things he's keeping from me."

"What's it about?"

"The soldier's name is Carson McFarren. He was born in Ireland but his family moved to London after his father died. His mother married into a Jewish family. When the war broke out and his father and older brother's left for war, he and his stepbrother supported his mother and sisters. During the first air raid in London he was hurt when a wall collapsed in an explosion. A man found him and helped him get out, told him he would be ideal for a special type of soldier if he were interested. He turned it down and went home, but he found his mother was the only person that survived the air raid. So he found the man and that's when he learned about the thu'lo. They were finding Allied soldiers willing to share bodies to fight the Germans. They didn't want Hitler to rule the world any more than the Allied forces did." Daniel closed his eyes. "I'm reliving Frank and Carson's capture."

"Capture?"

Daniel barely nodded. "They were fighting in Poland and were captured. Because he was wearing a Star of David, they sent him to the concentration camp at Auschwitz."

"Oh God." Carter laid her hand on Daniel's arm. "Did they live?"

"I don't know, yet. I only remember them waking up on a train with other Jews and the train stopping. They were all ordered off and then... The memory ends. I can't remember what happens after that and I don't want to."

Carter sat up, looking up. "Maybe you should."

Daniel looked up at her. "Do you know what it was like in those camps?"

She nodded. "I've read books. But I'm not the archeologist who now how has the chance to find out firsthand."

"Once I remember this, it will be a memory I'll never forget. I don't want that."

Carter looked at him. "It's part of Frank, Daniel. You keep saying that you know he's hiding things. Well, if being hurt is preventing him from keeping secrets, then you can use this memory against him later and make him tell you what else he's hiding."

Daniel hadn't thought of that. It would give him leverage. Yet...

"I don't want to remember what was done to people there, Sam."

"You think Frank does?" she softly asked.

Daniel guessed he didn't. Carter looked up again.

"What are you waiting for?" Daniel asked.

"Cameron went to get you some water."

Daniel closed his eyes a second. "Give us another shot."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but... Do it."

Carter got up and stepped behind him. Daniel felt woozy and then his consciousness faded away.

* * *

Carson shivered uncontrollably with his eyes closed tight. He heard sounds around him. Somewhere there were people laughing. 

'_Stay with me, Carson_,' Frank told him.

Carson opened his eyes, staring at the wall. How long had he been in this ice water with two nurses and a doctor watching him as they jotted notes? They didn't even see him. They just saw some lab animal that had no feelings.

"Okay, take him out," a voice said behind him.

'_Here comes Frankenstein_,' Frank muttered.

Carson felt Frank's dismay in his own heart, but while he felt hopeless, Frank was still holding onto the hope they would be rescued, that Allied forces would find this hell and save everyone in it.

German doctor. Josef Mengele walked around a nurse, taking her chart. Carson glared him as he was helped out of the freezing water. He could hardly feel his legs and it hurt to walk. The room blurred and consciousness started slipping away.

'_Carson, stay with me_,' Frank gently urged.

Carson blinked; focusing on the bed they were leading him too. At least for a few hours he'd be able to rest and get warm.

"Take him to room 212," Mengele said. "I think this one a genetic defect that has acclimated him to cold weather. We aren't getting credible results from his tests."

'_What... What's in room 212_?' Frank whispered.

Carson looked back at the doctor. Angel of death is what he was. Mengle's doctors had made Carson and others believe they were going to be released from hard labor. Instead he'd spent days being submerged for ours in ice water. And he knew he'd have died weeks ago if it hadn't been for Frank healing his body and keeping him alive.

The nurses led him out of the room into the hall. They passed rooms that he could hear people screaming in agony and fear behind those doors. They reached room 212 and turned into it. Carson looked down at a woman as he passed and he was filled with horror. She was skin and bones, her body wasting away. He looked at the other decimated humans in the room. What the hell were they doing in this room?

"What's going on in here?" Carson asked one of the nurses.

She didn't answer. The other nurse reached down and pulled back the thin sheet of a bed. They were moving him toward it. Carson suddenly resisted.

'_Carson, no_.'

"Get in bed," a nurse ordered.

"NO!" Carson pulled back from them.

'_Carson, don't! They'll shoot us!_'

Carson quickly pulled free from the nurses and ran for the door. One of the nurses called out for help. He slid to a stop when two soldiers ran in and aimed their rifles at him. Carson stared into their eyes. They didn't see him. They saw something that wasn't human. They had been programmed to only see that.

'_Carson, get in the bed. Please get in the bed. This isn't the time to be heroic._'

Carson stepped back. He felt Frank's fear. A hand took his arm and he turned his head, looking into the nurse's uncaring eyes--

* * *

Daniel stared into Carter's blue eyes. She smiled, brushing back his hair.

"Hey. You were having a nightmare."

"Frank's."

Mitchell knelt down beside her. "Doctor Lam was here and we're working on getting you out of here."

"Where is she?"

"She went back to prepare for surgery as soon as you come through. It'll only be a little bit longer. How are you doing?"

"My leg hurts."

"And Frank?"

"I don't know."

"Well, if you get a chance to talk to him, tell him we're almost out of this and hang on."

"Thanks, Cameron."

Mitchell smiled and left. Daniel heard him giving orders to people behind him, telling them how to tie ropes.

Daniel looked back at Carter. "Do you know who Doctor Josef Mengele is?"

She thought and then shook her head.

"He was the second physician in charge at Auschwitz. He conducted experiments that... Were..."

"I remember now. I learned that about him in a college European history class. What about him? Did Frank meet him?"

"They were tortured by him."

Carter looked down, silent for several minutes. "I'm sorry, Daniel. I thought that if... If you remembered then you'd be able to convince Frank to tell you more about himself."

Daniel smiled. "History is best learned when it's lived through."

"But the things he must remember from that time... Carolyn said that if you woke up, we could give you another shot while we moved you. You don't have to have it."

Daniel contemplated the offer. He wasn't sure he wanted to remember it.

"We're ready to move him," Mitchell said.

Daniel let out a slow breath. "Go ahead. I have to know what happened."

"Are you sure, Daniel?"

"Yes."

She got up, stepping behind him. He closed his eyes and let the morphine carry him away.

* * *

Frank was weak. Carson was barely alive. Carson lifted his hand. He could see every joint in the bones of his hand. He was slowly wasting away, slowly starving to death, and Frank was going with him.

"Frank," Carson whispered.

Frank heard him, but didn't reply. He had been trying to dissuade Carson from talking out loud to him, but Carson wasn't listening. It had been weeks that he'd lost his ability to comprehend much of anything, except that he knew Frank was there and he cared about him. He was the only close thing that Carson had any more, and he also still held out hope for rescue. Around him they had watched people taken away, people who had starved to death.

"Frank," Carson said.

A nurse walked up to him, watching him. These uncaring creatures did this every time Carson talked to Frank, scribbling away on their charts.

'_What_?" Frank asked.

"I have an idea, Frank. Do you see it?"

Frank watched Carson's idea unfold in his mind and he was struck with panic and horror.

'_No. Carson, you can't do that._'

"We aren't both dying here, Frank. Not both of us. You have a chance if you'll just go along with it."

'_If I leave you, you'll die._'

"If you don't leave me, we'll both starve to death. If that happens, what was the point of all of this?"

'_Carson, please don't ask me to_--'

"Frank, you know you have to do this."

'_That isn't what thu'lo do! I only agreed to blend with you because you were willing to blend with me. This isn't--_'

Carson smiled. "Frank, stop. We fought hard together, we killed hundreds of those bastards, but you have to do this. You have to continue fighting Hitler and save humanity."

Frank didn't answer.

"Please, Frank. Just do this for me. Please."

Frank stirred, the first time in weeks. '_Okay. Okay, Carson. But I'm going home and telling your mother you died... Died with honor._'

Carson smiled. "That's the spirit, mate. That's the spirit. Ready?"

The two looked up at the nurse standing over them. She wasn't paying attention, unsuspecting of what was about to happen to her.

"For Britain, Frank."

'_For humanity._'

Frank suddenly took over Carson. The man's eyes glowed golden and bright. Noticing he wasn't talking, the nurse looked down into those glowing eyes. And screamed. Frank burst from the bed, grabbing the woman. He heard footsteps running and knew time was short. He grabbed the woman's head, tightly gripping her jaw, and then pressed his lips to hers, using her scream against her. In seconds Frank left Carson, slipped through her mouth, and burrowed through the back of her throat into her neck. He had only seconds to blend into her. Her eyes flashed golden and for a few seconds he saw around Carson's head. The soldiers burst into the room and aimed at Carson.

Carson pushed away, turning to them and grinning. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth from the hole in the back of his throat. The nurse dropped to the floor as the soldiers fired.

Carson laughed as the bullets hit him, screaming, "LONG LIVE BRITIAN!" And then he fell to the floor dead – but not from the bullets.

Frank felt the nurse's senses, and learned her name: Magda Ludwid. She knew something was off in her, but she wasn't aware of Frank. For now he left it like that because he was too weak to do anything else. But the most relieving fact was she was German, she left the camp at night. Carson had suspected that and that's why he chose her to send Frank into.

The soldiers ran up and helped her to her feet. She moved away from Carson's body, staring at his smiling face. She watched Doctor Mengele run into the room and she moved out of the way. She turned away from the scene and went back to work. Frank lay quietly in her, waiting until he was strong enough to control her, and knew more about her to use her to escape Poland.

She walked up to a washbasin and grabbed a washcloth to wet it. Sunlight was dancing on the water through a window and reflected bright white light in her eyes.

* * *

The perspective of the village was angled and above. Daniel watched Jaffa firing on innocent people. He felt powerful, unstoppable. He could stop this slaughter. He had it in him to do that.

"You can't, Daniel. You know we mustn't interfere," someone told him.

"But they're dying!"

"I know, but this isn't a concern of ours."

Daniel turned, looking into bright light. He sensed that he looked the same to the speaker.

"We have all this power and we can't stop a system lord from slaughtering a village? This isn't right!"

"We cannot interfere with them."

"We could teach them how to ascend instead of die!"

"They are not ready."

Daniel looked back at the village. He wanted nothing more than to help. This was a curse, this power he felt in him.

"Daniel, there is something you must do. Do you sense it?"

Daniel focused. He did. He sensed... "Jack?" O'Neill was in trouble, dying. He was in pain.

"To save him you must convince him to ascend and guide him, Daniel."

Daniel turned away from the village; thankful to have something he cared even more about to focus on. He looked up and stared at himself, at first thinking he was staring into a mirror in a cave. But when he stepped forward and his image didn't move, he realized he wasn't.

"Who are you?" Daniel asked.

His mirror image self walked toward him without answering. Daniel backed up. His other self grabbed him by the shoulders, stopping him from retreating. He looked in his eyes, seeing light glowing in them.

"_Don't_ remember this, Daniel. Don't you dare."

"Remember what?"

"That place you were just at. Never remember that. Never."

"Why? What is it?"

"I don't... I don't really know. But I can tell you that the rest of the memories of it are not good ones, either. I'm protecting you, Daniel. I try to keep you from feeling pain and sorrow. You have to trust me, Daniel. I do this for your own good."

Daniel reached up, touching his face. He realized that this was supposed to be Frank, but Frank didn't look like this. "This isn't what you look like."

"No. This is what you see me as. Daniel, stay away from those memories. Don't ask me to give them to you. I think they're dangerous."

"Why?"

Frank's image began fading.

"What's happening?" Daniel asked.

"Sleep. Sleep, Danny boy."

It only took the suggestion to make him feel groggy. He closed his eyes, feeling sleep take over.

* * *

"AWWWWW!" Frank screamed.

Around him nurses, Carter and Lam grabbed him, holding him down.

"Hold still, Frank," Lam told him. "Carter, talk to him."

Carter crouched down, coming into Frank's line of sight. He was laying face down on a bed with a padded oblong opening for his face. She grabbed one of his hands, smiling at him.

"Hold still, Frank. Apparently the anesthesia didn't work on you."

Frank bit down, gritting his teeth as pain ripped through him.

"I'm giving you a local anesthesia, Frank. This will only take a few minutes."

"How's Daniel doing in there?" Carter asked.

"It worked on him."

"Good. Good." She smiled, taking his hand when he reached for her.

Frank's eyes began to droop. "His mother... She cried when I told her how he died."

Carter was confused at first. She understood suddenly. "Carson?"

"Yes. He was a good man."

"You'll have to tell me sometime."

"Daniel... Will." Frank's eyes closed and he fell asleep. Carter looked up at Lam, nodding.

Lam looked down at the Frank. She had made an incision in Daniel's neck to get to him and he lay exposed to her while she worked on him. Across from her, Doctor Wyr'tung worked with her, the two quickly closing the stab wound.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The woman worked fast and hard, quickly patching the Polish soldier under her hands. She turned when the tent flap opened, watching another two wounded soldiers. Magda Ludwid lifted her arm and swiped her sleeve across her bow to wipe away the sweat.

"Madga," she heard someone say in Czech. She turned, watching a doctor walk up. He was a kind man, much kinder than her husband.

She smiled before turning back to her work.

"After this, get some rest," he told her in German. He was an American, but he spoke German fluently.

She smiled. "I'm alright, Doctor Turner."

"You haven't slept in eighteen hours."

She shook her head. "I'm find, Doctor. We have patients who need me."

He laid his hand on her shoulder, leaning close. She looked into his brown eyes, into the kindness in them. She had never seen that kind of kindness in the doctors of Auschwitz.

"Madga, I know you're trying to atone, but this isn't the way," Turner whispered to her. "And you have done a lot of good since you defected and came to help us."

Madga looked away.

'You have, you know. I'm so very proud of you, Magda.' Frank told her.

She smiled, remembering how afraid she'd been when Frank took over and forced her to see what she was doing. He forced her to look at the children she had hurt, the woman she was killing. He had forced her to see what this was the wrong side of the war. And when she saw what her own hands had done, what her own hands were doing, she was convinced to escape. But she couldn't just run and Frank didn't argue with her when she decided to turn herself in. She crossed into Russia and she turned herself over to the first battalion she found. But they were near the border and attacked, and she couldn't sit and watch men dying when she knew how to help them. So she did, and somewhere in the mix one of the doctors had seen her effort to help, and he kept her close while he struggled with military leaders and his own government to keep her from being shot. One day he came into her cell with Doctor Turner and explained to her that if she wanted to live and help them, she had to become an American citizen and go with Doctor Turner to one of the American battalions. She would be on the front, she would be in danger, but those she served with would not kill her. And her past would remain their secret. She agreed and had been under his gentle, watchful eye ever since.

"I know," Magda told him. "But really, Doctor, I'm fine. I can work for another two hours and then we'll rest."

"We?"

She smiled. "I meant me. Sometimes I think of my patients resting."

"So you always tell me. Okay. Two more hours, and then you rest."

She nodded and left him to tend to one of the wounded brought in. Her eyes flashed bright and Frank took over.

'_Sleep, Magda_,' Frank told her. '_I know what to do._'

'_Wake me if you don't, Frank. We have to save as many as we can._' She was already falling asleep as she added, '_For Carson._'

Frank smiled with her lips. He was okay with sharing this body, saving these lives. It made the war to end all wars less tragic as he watched their hands save life after life. It made Carson's loss less painful.

* * *

Daniel opened his eyes, finding Lam standing by his bed and writing in a clipboard. 

She smiled and without looking, asked, "How are my favorite men?"

"Did we die?" Daniel asked.

'_That's my line_!' Frank snapped.

"Oh. Hey. Frank's mad at me. Again. This is a good thing."

She sat the clipboard on a table and slid the pen in her lab coat pocket. She pulled a stool up to the bed, nodding.

"That's very good. You've been in and out for a few days."

"I remember. Saw you a lot." Daniel rolled his hand over, offering it to her.

She put her hand in his, squeezing his tight. Daniel and Frank both noticed that the smile carried sadness.

"What's wrong with us, Carolyn?"

"I found out why you and Frank can be heard talking at the same time."

"How bad is it?"

"I spoke with a Tok'ra doctor and he knows what's happening to you two. What do you remember about your ascension, Daniel?"

He barely shook his head. "The Ancients took those memories away. I only remember a few fragments."

"No. They didn't take them away. They repressed them."

"They told you that?"

"No. Doctor Wyr'tung's patients that have had this happen to them have told him that. At least with the three that chose to let the goa'uld give them back their memories of ascension."

"_Give them back the memories_? I don't understand."

"Do you recall the memories Frank had of World War II?"

Daniel stared at her. Suddenly he was sharply aware that Frank was silent. Unusually silent.

"Frank... Was that a real memory?"

'_Yes,_' he whispered.

"What does that have to do with my memories of ascension?" Daniel asked Carolyn.

"Frank kept that memory of World War II from you until he was hurt, didn't he?"

Daniel stared at her.

"And I bet he's keeping other memories from you too."

"Frank?" Daniel looked across the room. "Frank... Are you keeping your memories from me?"

'_Yes._'

"Why?"

'_The ones I've kept from you are all like the one of Carson and Magda, Daniel. They're horrific. You don't want them._'

Daniel looked back at Lam. "I thought they couldn't keep memories from their hosts."

"Some have taught themselves how to."

'_It took lifetimes to learn how to. But I've kept those memories from other hosts too. To protect them._.'

"Hosts?" Daniel put his fingers against his temples. "I thought thu'lo didn't share hosts like the others, Frank? We were lied to, weren't we?"

'_No. We only share hosts when humans were needed to save each other._'

"What does that mean?"

'_I... For example, I shared the body of a monk during the Black Plague so he could survive the Ebola virus and treat patients. But once the host and I have done what we had to, I separate from them and get a body._'

"So the host then dies?"

'_No. We know how to separate from them without killing them. They never die unless they're already dying. Like Carson. He was being starved to death and I couldn't save him._'

"Carolyn, what does his hiding memories from me have to do with us talking at the same time?"

"Doctor Wyr'tung tested the Tok'ra that were exhibiting the same problem. DNA test flagged an anomaly in the host's DNA. He has found that hosts which had ascended and were cast back like you, had and extra base pair on their DNA. That makes you..." Lam drew a deep breath and finished. "That makes you not entirely human."

Daniel stared at her. Almost in a whisper he asked, "Then what does that make me?"

She slowly shrugged. "Unique, like the hosts in the Tok'ra with the same situation."

"What happened to those Tok'ra hosts?"

"That depends on the goa'uld. He knows of six among those in the camp he's with. Of those six, three asked their goa'uld not to give them the memories. They continued talking at the same time and developed telekinesis."

"Telekinesis? I'm going to start moving things with my mind?"

"Yes. All three had it happen at varying times in their life."

"And what about the other three that chose to have the memories?"

"He said that at exactly two years, two of them ascended again and they have not seen them since. The third will reach the two-year mark in another seven months. From the time they regained the memories to when they ascended, they and their symbiont began talking at the same time all the time and regained the abilities they had when they ascended."

Daniel closed his eyes. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Yes. SG-1 and my dad know."

"What did they say?"

"Nothing, really. This is your decision, Daniel, and they aren't going to make it for you. None of them."

"Our decision," Daniel corrected.

She took his hand in both of hers. Daniel looked into her eyes.

"Frank isn't talking right now. I don't know... What we're going to decide."

She stood and kissed his forehead. "I think you two need some time alone." She pressed her cheek against, whispering in his ear, "But just know, Frank, that I don't just have feelings for Daniel." Lam stood, letting Daniel's hand go as she turned away.

Daniel rolled onto his side. He and Frank were both quiet, thinking about what they wanted to do.

At the same time they told each other, "I don't want to ascend."

They were silent again. Daniel smiled and he felt Frank's relief.

'_Then it's settled, right, Daniel? I'm not going to give you these memories?_'

"Yes. I mean no, you're not."

'_If I had arms, I'd hug you._'

Daniel smiled. He felt the same way.

'_Well, if that's settled, then I'm going back to sleep._'

"What happened to Magda?" Daniel asked.

Frank was silent for a moment. '_Really? That's what you want?_'

"You can hear my thoughts. You know the answer."

Frank smiled. It was a strange feeling that Daniel knew meant he was smile.

'_After the war we separated and she lived a long life. She worked in medicine, trying to find cures. I think she always felt guilty for what happened to Carson and the others._'

Daniel closed his eyes. "Someday, you'll have to tell me about the Romans."

'_Someday, I'll do that._'

Daniel opened his eyes and light flashed in them. He turned, looking over his shoulder. Someone was standing in the doorway but he couldn't tell who it was. He turned over and they left before he saw their face. Frank rolled back onto his side and fell asleep with Daniel.

The End


	6. Author's Note

There is one thing about fan fiction websites that always frustrates me (and my readers). There's so many writers, and so many great stories, that it's easy to get confused about which story goes with what series by which author. Or is that just my natural hair color confusing me again?

I'd rather go with the lesser of the two evils in this case, so, I thought I'd toss together a reader's guide to help sort it out. Here ya go:

1. I, Goa'uld  
2. Soul Meets Body  
3. A Bird In The Hand  
4. The Road to Cardion  
5. Presume Nothing


End file.
